Once Higley High graduate, now Higley teacher

Clay Ashworth graduated from Higley High School in 2014. After pursuing higher education, he’s returned to the Higley Unified School District this year to nurture the next generation of leaders as a first-year teacher.

Clay is playing it forward as a band teacher of many hats. He holds the music teacher and band director position for Bridges, Power Ranch and Coronado elementary schools. In addition, he is the percussion caption head for Higley High School and Sossaman Middle School. His passion for teaching began to crescendo when he was the drumline section leader during his junior year at Higley High.

“Just the act of giving them my knowledge and then having them grow from that … is super inspirational, super amazing,” Ashworth said. “Why not make this a living, right? I want to love my job when I grow up, so why not do what I love?”

He decided he would teach band, and he continued to come back to Higley High to help the marching band while in college.

Equipped with his love of music, he is now inspiring the future generation of musicians.

“It’s just kind of cool to be back, part of the community again, part of the band community for sure and a part of this whole Higley legacy kind of thing where I am now teaching kids what I learned … keeping that whole full-circle thing going on.”